Awestruck Pt. 3 :: Heal Our Land

Audio from our Vinelife Online Gathering.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, hey there, Vine Life. Good morning. Hey, we're going to try something totally new today. We haven't done this before, but since we're not gathering in person, we just didn't want to miss the opportunity to be together. And so if you're joining in on a stream this morning, we just want to say thank you for being with us. And we're going to try this across the region wherever we're tuning in. We just believe that the Spirit of God is what brings us together, right? And so even though we can't gather in person, we're trusting that across the region our hearts are connected to each other as we're connected to Jesus, our head, right? And so this morning, what we want to do is we're going to worship together with a couple songs. I'm going to share a quick word of encouragement, and we're just going to continue to let the Lord encourage us even when we're not here in person. And so I'm going to read from Psalm 18. I think this is so relevant for the week that we're coming out of. It's a heart cry from David to God. And here's what he says in Psalm 18, verse 1. He says, I love you, Lord, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. My God, my rock in whom I take refuge. My shield and the horn of my salvation. My stronghold. I call upon the name of the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. And then he ends this psalm at the very end. He he brings it all into close and he says, This, For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations. And sing to your name. Great salvation he brings to his king and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and His offspring forever. Don't you love that we can worship today knowing that God is an unshakable rock? We we call to him, we call his name, our salvation comes from him alone. And he's worthy to be praised. So this morning, as we sing together in your living room, in your bedroom, in your office, wherever you are, let's join our voices together and just visualize everybody else singing around you. And just know that together on the earth, all across Boulder County, we're lifting up a song of praise to God because He is worthy and He's sitting on a throne and He is not shaken. And so let's do that together. Let's join our voices and sing.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Jesus, we just invite you, even now, to just come and counter our hearts this morning. Lord, I pray that wherever we are, whether we're in our homes or gathered with a few loved ones, Lord, I just ask that you would come and invade this space with us, Lord. We invite you in. We invite you in, Jesus. Not just to the atmosphere of the room, Lord, but into the deeper, inmost places of our hearts, Lord. We come, Jesus, knowing that you're not held in a building, Lord. You're not held in a certain location, Jesus. But you have called us to be the temple, Lord. And you've come and you've been in our midst all the time. Always, Lord. Lord, we're never lacking your presence. You're always right here with us. Thank you, Jesus, that we get to be the beloved of Christ in every season, in every situation, in every circumstance, Lord. We get to turn our face to you, Jesus. And we get to see you, Lord, and you smiling over us, God. Lord, nothing is outside of your control. Nothing is outside of your hands. So we just release ourselves to you. Lord, we ask you to have your way, to come and speak to us, to come and move among us, Lord. Lord, your kingdom advances. Your kingdom advances. It's not based on a gathering or a church, Lord. Your kingdom advances because of the beloved of Christ. So Lord, thank you that you come, advance your kingdom among us and within us. We worship you, God. You are worthy of all glory and all honor and all praise. There's no one like you, Lord. We turn to you in all of this and we just say, Glorious one, you are worthy, you are good, and we trust you. We love you.

SPEAKER_04 4:25

You give light. You are love. You bring light to the darkness. You give hope, you restore every heart that is broken.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

You give light, you give light, you are love, you bring light to the darkness, you give all, you restore every heart that is broken. It's your breath in alliance. So we both it's your breath in alliance. So we bought place to bring light.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Oh no one has you and all the earth will shout your praise, our hearts will cry, these bones will sing.

SPEAKER_03 7:47

Our hearts will cry, these bones will sing.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Are you Lord? It's your head, it's your head in our lives, so we pour out our place, pour out of place, it's your head in our eyes, so we pour out our place to only it's your head your grace in our house, so we pour out our grace, all our grace, it's your head, it's only in it, it's always yes, always be always me.

SPEAKER_03 12:56

So we'll always be a worthy Lord, it's always me, and it'll always be always be Jesus, you are the one, you are the worthy one, Lord, you are shield and protector, you are shield and protector, oh you are shield and protector, Lord Always be you, Lord, you are shield and protector Who we trust in you Oh you are chill and protector Oh, it's always been you it trust in you, Lord You are chilled and protector who trust in you are still there protector you how you love you love you, Lord Where else would we go? Oh how we love we love you, we love you.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

And uh I know a lot of us are still trying to really understand what's going on with the spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus, and there seems to be a lot of uncertainty, and I'm guessing you're feeling that, or you've been around others who have felt that. We're all kind of trying to wrap our heads around uh what's happening right now. So there's a couple responses, and maybe you're in one of these camps. Some are just flat out panicking. So they'll watch the news and just story after story after story of things shutting down or what they should do or not do, and wondering if they already have it, and kind of freaking out, losing sleep. Um and and and so we have people in that camp that it's just fear, just gripped by fear, right? And then there's others that you talk to, and maybe this is you as well, where um you know you you're you're listening to all the news, but you're just kind of blowing it off because it just feels like a huge overreaction, right? It feels like, gosh, what is what is all the hype around this? Um and maybe you've been a part of those different conversations. And uh and and I want to say this to you if if you are feeling a sense of fear or uncertainty, I just want to speak over you. Um the mercy and the comfort of God. May the God of all mercy and comfort be with you. I believe he wants to minister to your heart in those places. Do not be afraid, the scripture says. Because we're safe, we're secure in him. Um but I for all of us though, I do I think this is a this is a moment for us. This is a call-up moment. I believe this is an upgrade for the church. Not only to walk in great faith and great wisdom, um, but God, I believe, is inviting everyone into a new opportunity to take inventory of the ground that we're walking on and what we're believing in. And so a few weeks ago, what's wild is we started a fast together, a 40-day fast, and we called the whole church to this, and I know a lot of you are participating in that. And that's something that at the end of this last year we felt like the Lord was asking us to do. And we've been in a conversation talking about what it means to understand the fear of the Lord, um, to not fear man, to not fear the things of this world, but to turn our fear to the Lord, and again, we we know that that doesn't mean being afraid of God, but it means living in awe. And so we've been in this series called awestruck and and relearning what it means to walk closely with God, but with reverence and with honor, paying attention to his word, submitting our lives to him. And so one of the movements of this series, and even since the beginning of the year, we've talked about not only fearing God, but we've invited him to tear down high places. And and if you remember from our reorient series, we talked about King Josiah and how as he turned to God, he then began to tear down high places all across the region. And even the last several days, if you've been getting our daily emails and the words and scriptures we've been sending out, a lot of them have been about inviting God to tear down high places. Now, um I I I don't know about you, but uh it's one thing to talk about that. God come and reveal high places or idols in my life, but it's another thing when that actually happens, when when when things get exposed in our actual life, and and uh I would say we're in a cultural moment right now where what we see in every sphere of society is the things that our lives are built upon, the things that we have trusted in, are all being rattled, they're all being shaken, they're all being exposed, and that's really uncomfortable. I'll give you a few examples, and and this shouldn't be surprising to you, but here's a few things that we see happening right now. We see, you know, this virus has uh has created a huge disruption in the economy, for instance, and we see the stock market, and and that causes a lot of people to to shake, you know, to to be fearful. We see in our politics and what are the government officials gonna do. We see it in sports. I mean, sports are affected, and so if you're a hockey fan, too bad. If you're a if you're a March Madness fan, sorry, right? I mean, everything is getting touched right now. Entertainment, tours are being canceled, shows huge gatherings, arena gatherings of all sides, uh of all sizes are being touched right now. Uh the medicine, the medical world is is under extreme pressure right now. And even the church, see this kind of disruption even starts to disrupt high places in the church, and the church has to relearn what it means to be the people of God, even if our gathering gets taken away, and even if our ability to organize in the same ways gets disrupted. And so this is, I believe, a call-up moment. This is an opportunity for us as everything is being shaken. This is what we've prayed for. Like, God, would you shake what's shakable and so we can be grounded and rooted in you? And then we spent some time just this last week with a dear friend of ours, John Peterson, who he met with our elders, and he he's uh an apostolic leader, and he's just been really uh a beautiful asset and help to the divine life community as he's um shared his wisdom and encouragement with us. And we were praying just the other day, and he brought up a pretty amazing insight because he was referring to the passage when the people of God were in Egypt, and they had been in Egypt so long that Egypt was inside of them. The culture of the land was inside of them. And um, and and so when when God came to deliver them, when God would send Moses in to bring them out, the scripture says that the that God sent ten plagues upon the land of Egypt, and part of the purpose of those plagues was to expose the idols, all the gods that the Egyptians were worshiping and trusting in. To expose those gods for what they are, to show that our trust, our safety, our security, our significance, belonging, belongs to the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so as the plagues came in, it disrupted this cultural system, these trusts, and it it brought fear upon the people. But that had to happen for the people of God to be taken to the wilderness, to be reshaped in their identity, to be reshaped in who they are. And as as John was sharing this this last week, I I I just uh it struck such a chord with me as we've been asking God to tear down idols. I believe we're in a time right now. You and I are in a time where there is an invitation where things that we've trusted in, even in the church, are being disrupted. And God is leading us to a place where we're fixing our gaze on Him, we're fixing our eyes and our trust and our attention on Him. That we won't stand in fear of everything the world says we should fear. But we will we will be rooted in the person of Jesus. And so as God, as we're in this moment, and trust me, I'm what I'm not saying here, I'm not saying God sent this virus to the world. I'm not saying that. I'm saying because it is here, the the opportunity within the midst of this disruption is for us to ask this question what ground am I standing on? And this is a really beautiful time for all of us as we're in our homes, and a lot of us are quarantined for the time being or trying to lay low with our family and loved ones. The question that we can ask is, what ground am I standing on? For some of us this week, it's a it's a it's an amazing opportunity to start paying attention to the fear or the frustration or the anger or the loneliness or the things that come up and say, God, is there anything that you're wanting me uh that you're wanting to bet me to pay attention to so that I can surrender to you and so that you can purify our hearts for the days that we're in. And it's a time where we get to ask that question, we get to reflect, and it's not a time of guilt or shame when God exposes idols, it's actually his mercy and his goodness because he's trying to invite us to root ourselves in what's eternal, what cannot be shaken, right? And that's so I love the promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14 as Solomon is dedicating the temple. And as they're dedicating a place, a house of God, um, they're dedicating themselves back to God as the people of God. God says this to Solomon. He says, If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and heal their land. And I just believe this is such a beautiful promise for us, for those who are willing to receive this, that this promise and this invitation still stands for us. That if we will humble ourselves, you know, everything is being humbled right now. Every leader, every powerful structure and person right now in our culture is being humbled and leveled. But if we will choose to humble ourselves before God and pray and seek his face and turn from anything that God reveals to us that is wicked or just off-center from his love, then the promise is he's gonna hear from heaven and he's gonna forgive our sin and bring healing to the land. And I think like you, we want God to bring healing. We want God to get this virus out of our land, out of this world. We don't want our loved ones to be subject to this virus, we don't want anybody to be hurt um by this virus. And so we can trust that as we respond to God, that He his promise still stands, that He will forgive our sins and He's gonna heal our land. And so I want to leave you with that today. And as we turn towards God, I just want to encourage you, we're in a time where we get to move in the opposite spirit of what the world is doing. The Spirit of God always moves in the opposite spirit of the spirit of this world. And so in a time of anxiety, we get to be a people of peace, right? In a time of confusion, we get to be a people of great clarity and wisdom. In a time of hoarding, where everyone's collecting and like freaking out and getting more toilet paper than they need or hand sanitizer or whatever, um, we get to be a people of generosity, right? Because that's what the Spirit of God does, and that's who He is. And then in a time of great fear, we get to be a people perfected in love, loving greatly. This is the moment for the church. And I want to encourage you, I want to challenge you in your days to pay attention to what you're paying attention to. Pay attention to what you're beholding and what you're receiving. And I want to challenge you, for every minute that you spend watching the news, spend two minutes in prayer seeking the face of God. Pay attention to your source of information. For every minute you spend reading blogs and catching up on the latest stuff, spend two minutes seeking the face of God. And I'm telling you, this is a time for us to appropriate the reality of heaven and actually ask God to let his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And then finally, I just want to leave you with this passage in Isaiah 26, 3. It says this that you keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. So Vine Life. Can we take our minds, can we keep our minds stayed on God, fixed on God, so that he can increase peace, so that our trust can grow. And uh, and as we do that, I'm just praying that God infiltrates your home and your neighborhood and the people that you're in interaction with, um, so that this is a time of of great breakthrough, and this is a time of drawing near and not just a time of hunkering down. So I want to bless you in that, and and together let's just agree that God is casting out fear with his perfect love.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

You unravel me with a melody. You surround me with song of deliverance from my enemies till all my fears are gone. I'm no longer slaved fear. I am a child of God. I'm no longer slaved fear. I am a child of God from my mother's womb you have chosen me. Love has caught my name. I've been born again into your family, your blood goes through my face.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

So, Vine Life, uh, a few things before we end this uh this stream this morning. Um I know there's a lot of questions going out about how we're going to move forward, and honestly, I don't have all the answers. We don't have all the answers, and so we're gonna continue to update you. Just a few things I want to encourage you with, though. You know, um we're still praying and discerning whether it's going to be right to meet together on Sunday mornings. Um, technically within the state of Colorado, we're of the size where it's actually permissible to meet together. Uh, but it's really important to us that we're taking every precaution so we can protect the most vulnerable within our community. Um, so I mentioned that only because others are just wondering why we're not still meeting. And uh it is possible that that will continue, but we're gonna have to keep you uh up to date on whether we think that's gonna be wise for us to meet through the rest of March. But until then, a couple pieces of encouragement. First of all, there's nothing stopping you from meeting in homes. I mean, you want to exercise wisdom. You do want to uh apply the same cleanliness and sanitation standards in your homes if you're having people over. I just want to encourage you uh to not uh not spread uh illness if you suspect that you or somebody that you're inviting to your home has illness, that probably would not be wise uh to do that. But as is appropriate, don't disconnect from each other. Like be with each other in each other's homes. And um, and I believe that God wants to meet us there. The other thing too, if if you're just not comfortable with that, I want to encourage you to call each other, email each other, text each other, pray with one another over the phone or over Facebook or whatever medium uh that you have to connect with each other. Um there's you know, as as people come to mind within the community, uh reach out. Don't let's not let each other be isolated. Third, the I just want to encourage you to pay attention to the needs of your neighbors. Um uh you know, there's people that you're living next to that might have needs, and so it wouldn't be inappropriate to even check in uh with your neighbors and ask if there's any ways that you can meet needs in your neighborhood. Some people might not have the supplies they need, and there might be elderly people in your neighborhood that you can connect with. And and and that's really my final point here. If you or anybody you know uh who is elderly um has a need and specifically has a grocery list and they need to find ways to get groceries without leaving the house, one of the recommendations from the governor is to take care of the elderly. Let's get their grocery list and go to the store for them so they don't have to leave their house, okay? That's something we can all do, and we can we can share ways to bless those um who are vulnerable to this virus. And then again, you know, we're gonna be focusing on more technology like this to do live streams. And so just want to encourage you um to continue to give online because that helps us be able to get to to be able to weather moments like this where we need uh more technology to be able to connect with each other, and so you can give online to the link uh provided in the live stream. But we want you to be blessed again. Join our Vine Life Facebook group, share your prayer requests or any other things God is speaking to your heart, and we want you to be blessed this week to live in the strength of the kingdom. Love you guys. Okay.